sinking down, down

[facultwist]

Death is a drop into a blackness that swallows you. You feel the movement of not air but shadow across your face as you plummet, and there is no bottom. No crash.

If there is another side, you do not reach it.

It is neither the light of heaven or the fires of hell that greets you when you wake. And wake you do, to the buzz and flicker of old fluorescent lights.

You are laid out beside a full-size competitive swimming pool, half-filled with stagnant water. The doors out are blocked off by locked doors covered in caution tape. The locker rooms are long since emptied, paint peeling from the humidity. The only signs of habitation are a few pieces of scattered graffiti.

Welcome to your new home. There's no sunlight, no indication of time passing. Just you and each other and your thoughts. the stagnant water bubbles a little occasionally, but there's nothing in it.

Before long you'll realize that you no longer need to eat or drink. You might notice your hand go through something if you don't focus. You're a ghost now. What's that they say about unfinished business?

Comments

Satsuki Drawing Aftermath

[trustheart]

[ Satsuki isn't alone. Chris is passed out on the floor of her bathroom, all her energy spent from drawing the simple picture in the fogged up mirror in Satsuki's bathroom.

Regardless of what Satsuki does, someone will have to carry Chris back to the pool. ]

[sweetsynergy]

[At some point, Vanity is going to stumble across this.]

[She just stands there for a second, torn between walking back out and actually helping. After a moment she moves into the room, squatting by Chris' prone form and gives her a gentle shake.]

NOW who's not taking care of herself properly, idiot? Checkmate.

[trustheart]

[ There's no response. Chris is figuratively (and perhaps literally, considering her current status?) dead to the world right now. ]

[sweetsynergy]

God you're lucky we don't have ghost sharpies.

[Fine, fine. She'll heft Chris up one one shoulder and start the slow walk of shame back towards the pool.]

This probably makes us even for- you know, everything, right? Say nothing if I'm right.

[trustheart]

Hate...you....

[ If you were only so lucky, Vanity. Other than that, Chris is completely silent as she hang's limp from Vanity's shoulder. ]

[sweetsynergy]

Oh of course you wake up for that. Good.

[She carries on the next few steps in silence, chewing on her lip. Looking everywhere but Chris.]

And. I should say. Probably.

[A long pause. And, like it physically hurts to form the sound-]

Sorry.

[Her pace quickens.]

[trustheart]

[ There's a tightening on Vanity's shirt as Chris grabs hold of it, seemingly in response.

Or maybe it's just a reflex.

The hard part is neither of you will never know for sure, Vanity. ]

[sweetsynergy]

[There's a sharp intake of breath at that, but at least her pace doesn't falter.]

Not that it changes anything. Or it shouldn't. ...fuck it, just- do NOT stop hating me, you'll. You'll get hurt again otherwise.

[trustheart]

[ There's no response. Just. Chris hanging there silently. ]

[sweetsynergy]

[Yeah, probably for the best.]

Oh good we're here, bye-

[Reaching the pool, Vanity sets Chris down near a wall, arranging her as comfortably as possible for a ghost on a cold, hard floor. And then slumps off to recover herself, at a respectable and safe distance.]

[And makes it halfway to the opposite corner before tripping and falling.]

Ow. You know what, this- this is fine-

[She groans and rolls over beside the wall herself.]